U.S. vets from Iraq war emerge at homeless shelters

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=6c4cd9ad642aee50

U.S. vets from Iraq war emerge at homeless shelters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Mark Benjamin Wednesday 8th December, 2004

U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."
more...
They would rather live in a Homeless Shelter than go back to Iraq!!!

[zapp]

1. Thats not what that means

As a person who works woth homeless veterans...thats not why vets disproportionately are homeless. They come back with far more issues than before they left. And sometimes those issues are debilitating enough to cause homelessness.

[lovuian]

2. Yes I agree they are suffering from many things

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other abuses

But I don't think all of the vets are that in the job market we have now days where do they get jobs when they come home???

[heidler1]

23. Having talked to many career Vets many took that route because they

couldn't find a job out of high school. Now they still can't.

[pocoloco]

3. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Not Good!!

[Stephanie]

4. You have got to be fucking kidding me!

All these many years later and we do not have an adequate system of services for these vets?? That is a DISGRACE.

SHAME

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. In fact the services are being cut

as we speak... even further that is

[okieinpain]

29. oh stop story telling. they are not being cut, they are just being funded

at the same amount that they were funded 20 years ago. :~) we shouldn't worry about these guys hell, they love bush and will do anything for him. besides jesus loves his little warriors and will only put on them the things that they endure.

[texpatriot2004]

13. You are so right. It is a horrible disgrace. What is the matter

with us that this is how we treat our wounded, traumatized vets? What does that make our government? A monster I tell you. And, like you said, all these years later? Did we learn nothing from Viet Nam? How pathetic and how sad!

[0007]

25. The vets have been trying to tell us how they are neglected by the

VA hospitals after being discharged and no one listens. All we want to do is put a fucking yellow ribbon on a vehicle.

Where's the media? Where's the outrage?

[girl gone mad]

28. Meanwhile..

people hawking "support our troops" magnets are getting rich.

[okieinpain]

30. well all I ever hear is the vets looooooove bush. and hate liberals.

[Downtown Hound]

5. Yep, and soon we'll hear Rush Limbaugh,

Mr. I have a cyst on my ass and can't go to war but I support the troops tell them to just go out and get a job. Post traumatic stress be damned.

It's this shit that just pisses me off so much and makes me hate Republicans to the very core of my being. They're the ones that cut the health care for these troops. They're the ones always saying support the troops and if you don't you're an anti-American traitor. They're the ones that cheered this war which was all based on lies. God damn hypocrites! When will they learn?

[George W. Hayduke]

7. I lived in a hobo camp

for awhile in Arizona with some vets (korean war, vietnam, gulf war) while hitchiking around the country. I was the camp cook! Best bunch of guys i've ever met. Alcoholics, but that's a given.

Also traveled Rainbow Gathering circuit on/off for last 10 years. Plenty of hippie vets, tramps and otherwise at Rainbows. Camped for awhile with one gulf war Marine in NoCal who trained me Kung Fu 'neath the mighty redwoods!

Anyhoo, these guys come back dejected, depressed and ANGRY--AT THE SAME GOV'T and the beauracracies that sent them to war.

THEY WILL BE THE ONES WHO LEAD THE FIGHT WHEN REVOLUTION COMES...

mark my words.

[norml]

12. Welcome Home George!

I've been to a few Rainbow Gatherings myself.

[leftchick]

18. welcome to DU George!

I have no doubt about that revolution.

:toast:

[JI7]

8. this is no surprise

[aikido15]

9. I never thought I would see...

this again after Vietnam. I thought we learned from that mistake. Everything was so cool back then, rock music concerts (great rock), sexual revolution (without AIDS), everybody "doing their own thing" and then Vietnam brought madness down on us.

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam! BRING 'EM HOME NOW!

[aikido15]

10. John is...

<-----rolling over in his grave! ;(

[MidwestTransplant]

11. How very Republican

They only care about children before they are born...after that they are on their own.

With veterans they only care when they are at war (if then) and they are totally on their own when they get back.

[Just Me]

22. Pro-death after birth, Pro-abandonment, Pro-persecution,...

,...Pro-homelessness, Pro-profits over people. I just don't get it!

Since when is it an American value to not only leave oppressed citizens but also traumatized soldiers behind?

Where's the freakin' compassion in THAT!?!?!

:cry:

[American Tragedy]

14. I've seen countless homeless vets, around here and in bigger cities

Especially in NY and Chicago. I saw several amputees, dragging their feet, filthy, hauling a grocery cart with medals and a flag draped over the front. I had to fight back tears. It was just so forlorn and unbearable.

The people with me said I was just a bleedin heart, but I don't care.

:cry:

[Qanisqineq]

15. OUTRAGEOUS!

My, how republicans "support the troops". They should be so proud.

[LynnTheDem]

16. PURPLE HEART BANDAIDS!!! PURPLE HEART BANDAIDS!!!

For SCRATCHES!

Fucking rightwingnut bastards. Wish THEY'D go die for their bush-god's bullshit.

[0007]

34. Where is this insanity gonna end? Every time these bastards

take office its the same goddamn thing. War. Fuck the vet. Cut VA benefits. Minimum wage stays the same while unemployment goes up. And the homeless roam the street in herds.


Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam! BRING 'EM HOME NOW!

[NuttyFluffers]

17. may god grant me a life long enough...

to spit on each and every one of the graves of the warmongers who put this tragedy in motion.

the horrors of the past do not have to be repeated, damn it! they don't have to be repeated! my heart is dead to any of the sick fucks who voted for this abomination of events. i reserve compassion only for those who need it, and these poor soldiers are definitely in the need category.

a blood curse on each and every bastard who voted for this madness. screw karma, i want to savor the sweetness of revenge by watching suffering befall each and every one of them. grant me the chance to spit on their grave!

[jdots]

19. here is a link for a very important movie about this

www.thegroundtruth.org We are the people who care,not the neocons and thier duped fake patriots with WW2 mind sets

[Pulse]

20. This is sickening.

I'm going to check out the Dayton Homeless Shelter today.

[llmart]

21. Don't you get it?

This administration didn't care about the soldiers to start with which is why they used them for their own selfish purposes, so why the hell would you expect them to care about them after they're used up fighting their illegal/immoral wars?

[Mari333]

24. the sales from all those goddamned yellow ribbons

would be more then enough to cover the costs of helping these kids.
Fair weather patriots, those assholes with their yellow ribbons..I asked one of them to send a package to the units in Iraq instead of buying that goddamned ribbon..."Im too busy" she said.

Comfortable cowards, anyone who backed this illegal war.

[Barkley]

26. I just don't understand how people can still be for this war?

Homeless Iraqi vets is just too much!

What are we doing to our children?

What are we doing to our nation?

This war was based on lies and our invasion and occupation did not disarm Iraq because it was already disarmed.

As much as the gov't would like control of Iraq's oil its simply not ours (or anyone else's) to steal.

Bring the Troops Home NOW!

Help the Vets NOW!

[Senator Lamb]

27. Dear America,

wake the fuck up.

[yardwork]

31. This is what Springsteen's song "Born in the USA" is about

The ignorant right-wingers never listened to the words in the song so they assumed it was patriotic. It's patriotic, all right - patriotic in the sense that Springsteen was using his right to free speech to talk about how Vietnam vets were treated when they came home! And the song's not about vets being spit on by "hippies," it's about how they can't get jobs and can't forget the horrors of the war.

The same thing happened after the first Gulf War. Most of the homeless people around here are veterans of that war. Nobody wants to know.

Now it's happening again. And nobody cares except us bleeding heart liberals.

Sometimes it is very difficult for me not to HATE all Republicans!

[sphincter]

32. Wouldn't worry too much....

I am sure that our good hearted saviour, Bill O'Reilly, will look out for the vets.

[0rganism]

33. 100% proof that we learned jack shit from the war in Vietnam

What is that statistic, something like 20% of homeless people are (or were, a few years back) Vietnam veterans? Well, here we go again.